Totally Zonin'

Total Zone ratings have been on my mind lately, and so I decided to brush the ol' cobwebs off of Sean Rally's old Baseball Projection files and play around with some of the numbers. It seems obvious to me,  first and foremost, to always seek out the most laughably atrocious examples of anything, not just in baseball, but in life in general. For instance, a dude getting some air on his BMX is like whatever, but a dude totally bitin' it on his BMX is a pretty good time. Thus, firstly, some dudes that totally bit it:


WORST SEASONS EVER, BY TOTAL ZONE

Player	Year	Team	Position	PA	Bat	TZ	Total	Pos	rep	RAR	WAR
Brad Hawpe	2008	COL	RF	567	14	-36	15	-7	16	-17	-1.7
Ryan Braun	2007	MIL	3B	487	33	-34	36	1	13	15	1.5
Dante Bichette	1999	COL	LF	649	-1	-32	-5	-7	17	-29	-2.8
Joe Carter	1990	SDN	CF	689	-14	-32	-2	-1	19	-13	-1.4
Chris Gomez	1997	SDN	SS	580	-16	-31	-18	9	17	-25	-2.6
Kirby Puckett	1993	MIN	CF	676	14	-30	16	-3	22	5	0.5
Michael Young	2005	TEX	SS	729	27	-29	27	7	22	25	2.5
Adam Dunn	2009	WAS	1B/OF	666	34	-28	29	-8	18	7	0.9
Tony Gwynn	1989	SDN	OF	661	26	-28	32	-4	20	25	3
Ken Griffey jr	2005	CIN	CF	548	29	-27	28	2	15	19	2
Ty Wiggington	2003	NYN	3B	628	-7	-27	-2	2	18	-10	-1
Ron Gant	1991	ATL	CF	637	19	-26	27	2	18	20	2.3
Jorge Cantu	2005	TBA	2B/3B	623	4	-25	1	1	21	-3	-0.3
Jose Guillen	1997	PIT	RF	523	-13	-25	-15	-6	15	-35	-3.5
Alex Rios	2009	TOR	CF	473	-4	-25	-1	-5	15	-14	-1.4
Ed McKean	1887	CL3	SS	600	2	-25	3	8	9	-5	-0.5

More on Perfect FIP Games

David Wishinsky over at Athletics Nation proposed the idea of a 'defensive independent perfect game," a concept which he proposed would simply be a standard Complete Game with no walks or homeruns allowed. Tom Tango over at the Book blog then expounded on the idea, lobbying that the feat also require no hit batsmen and a FIP of 0.00 (requiring K*2/ IP  to be greater than 3.2).
In 9 innings of baseball that would require at least 15 strikeouts. Using the B-Ref play index, I found 12 performances that met this criteria:

FIP PERFECT GAMES

Blankenship, Stanky, and Bassler

Over at SBNation there was a tepid celebration of Craig Counsell's career, well, mostly his evolving batting stances. Someone mentioned that Counsell's rare combination of a solid 10.7 walk rate and a putrid .089 ISO is probably "some sort of record." Here's a list of players with similar numbers, dating back to 1975.

CAREER BB% >= 10, ISO <=. 090

min 1000 PA

F+ minus E+ = A+!

MLBN was airing the 1993 World Series yesterday, and as a consequence the1993 Phillies have been on my mind all morning. Yup, Lenny Dykstra and his cheek were stuck in my mind all morning. But if you remember, that cheek, along with John Kruk and Darren Daulton, led an absolute powerhouse of an offense:

Rk	Pos		Age	PA	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1	C	Darren Daulton*	31	637	5	.257	.392	.482	.875	135
2	1B	John Kruk*	32	651	6	.316	.430	.475	.905	144
3	2B	Mickey Morandini*	27	470	13	.247	.309	.355	.664	79
4	SS	Kevin Stocker#	23	302	5	.324	.409	.417	.826	124
5	3B	Dave Hollins#	27	640	2	.273	.372	.442	.814	119
6	LF	Milt Thompson*	34	387	9	.262	.341	.350	.691	87
7	CF	Lenny Dykstra*	30	773	37	.305	.420	.482	.902	143
8	RF	Jim Eisenreich*	34	394	5	.318	.363	.445	.808	117
		Team Totals	29.2	6527	91	.274	.351	.426	.777	108
		Rank in 14 NL teams			13	2	1	2	1

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/16/2012.

But what I don't necessarily remember is that the team's exceptional offense apparently came with a hefty price tag of an exceptionally rubbing defense. In the field, Philadelphia's position players cost their pitchers a whopping -49 runs that year according to Total Zone. That is abysmal. It's the sort of number that makes you enjoy watching Mitch Williams blow it game 6. Like, good. You deserve that, Mickey Morandini.

Ray Fosse and Overweight Inter-Galactical Conquest

Ray Fosse was eighth on the MLBN's 'could have been' list, and the rationale was that Fosse's career was on the fast track to super-stardom had it not been for a collision at the plate with Pete Rose in the 1970 all-star game. The argument that Fosse had this degree of upside is built around his age 23 season, one that clearly stands out historically.

TOP SEASONS BY CATCHERS BEFORE AGE 24, SORTED BY wRAA:

Hey Pedro! Yeah I'm Talking to You!

Yeah you, Pedro Martinez, do you know any other Pedro Martinez's?? We're gonna have words, pal!

I get it that Pedro was probably the best pitcher to ever play the game of baseball. Yeah, sure, fine. But much too much is made about his "feat" of striking out Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Jeff Bagwell in a row in the 1999 all-star game. B.F.D. If I was there I would only have one thing to say to Pedro's face:

hey pedro, why don't you try striking out a real man!

The Day The Baseball Data Bank Made Me Drink

MLBN's Prime 9 assembled what they estimate to be baseball's top nine "could have beens" yesterday and it was absolutely the best episode the program has put together since it's been on the air. I wanted to examinine a few of these players over the next few days, because the show gripped me, man. It gripped me good. Oh yeah, like you've never cried before. "Big man". Whatever, I didn't cry anyway, I just wanted to see if you did. I'm not a big baby.

The list, though, is chock-full of tragic, heart-breaking, bizarre, and overall fascinating cases of abbreviated and compromised potential. This is it, here:

9. Rick Ankiel

8. Ray Fosse 

7. Pete Reiser
6. Lyman Bostock

5. Herb Score

4. Tony Conigliaro

3. J.R. Richard

2. Bo Jackson

1. Satchel Paige

Garza's Spike, And What is "a Place"

I've been reading a lot lately about Matt Garza's fantastic 2011 season, and that it sort of came out of nowhere. Which is a really bizarre concept to wrap your head around, really. Like, I can imagine Matt Garza himself having this sort of pensive moment when left to himself.  "How does something come out of nowhere?" He might ask. "What is nowhere to begin with? Is nowhere a place? How can there be a place in the universe that is not a place? How does something not come from a place? What a weird word, 'place'."

what is 'a place' anyway? what is anything anyway?

Fade into Chazz Billingsley

I recently found my way into owning Chad Billingsley in a dynasty league, and I'm not exactly thrilled about it. Mainly because with Chad, it's like being caught in an bad relationship. One that has me wondering, What did I even see in him in the first place?

Don't turn around, Chad, if you want to see my heart breaking.